The Ministry of Labour and Human Resources says it aims to reduce youth unemployment rate by three per cent in the next five years. Labour Minister Ugyen Dorji said this at the first Meet the Press session yesterday.
According to the Labour Force Survey 2017, the youth unemployment rate stands at 12.3 per cent.
“The overall unemployment rate is 3.1 per cent and the youth unemployment rate is 12.3 per cent,” Minister Ugyen Dorji said.
“We are targeting to bring the youth unemployment rate down to 9 per cent over the 12th Five Year Plan period.”
He added the ministry will also work closely with the corporate sector and State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in addressing unemployment issues.
“In total, the government agencies and corporate sectors are expected to create about 67,000 jobs over the next five years. The number of new job seekers projected to enter the job market over the next five years is around 70, 000,” the labour minister said.
“But 11,000 job seekers have entered this plan period from the last plan period. So, in total we are talking about 82,000 job seekers. We are expecting 67,000 jobs to be created through coordination and collaboration between the public and corporate sector.”
The Ministry of Labour and Human Resources will also come up with an employment responsibility system. Under this system, relevant government agencies and sectors will come together and will be held responsible for creating a certain number of jobs.
For the 12th FYP, the ministry has been allocated a total budget of about Nu 2.8bn. The budget will be for creating productive and meaningful jobs and transforming the Technical and Vocational Education Training sector.
